Monday, December 31, 2007

Ella had her 15 month "well baby" checkup today, never mind the fact that she is 16 months old : ) I mean seriously the kid is at the doctors enough does she really need a checkup? (We were in there last Friday because her breathing still sounded rough every once in a while and obviously I didn't want it to get as bad as it had on Wednesday, and the doctor prescribed us a nebulizer and breathing treatments, and since then she has been doing really good.) Because I have been so far behind on her shots I figured I'd take her in!

What did her checkup reveal???? Besides the fact that she is amazing : ) (her doctor even said so) not much. She weighed in at 24lbs 11ozs (so glad to see she has slowed down on the gain) and she is 30 inches tall, and her head is 18 1/4 inches! For the first time in her life her measurements are all in the same percentile (on the down syndrome growth chart ) ~ 95% + Yay, I'm so glad her height has caught up with her weight. Other than that, her ears look wonderful, the Dr said she could see the tubes and they were beautiful, her lungs still sound good ( I was worried that this crud she has would turn into pneumonia like it did last year) and she even said that she thought her muscle tone had improved (after messing with her hips.)

Things have been a little hectic around here, we have been packing up our house, hoping any day to get word on the early out of the Air Force. Knowing them we will probably find out the day before we are supposed to leave, but what can you do??? Better run, I hear Miss Thing waking up from her nap!!! Take care.

P.S. - To James-Liz-Lindsey that left a comment on my blog, the song Amazing is song by Janelle, the album is Livin for Something. I had never heard it but when putting a song to my photo montage I found it on the onetruemedia.com website. I LOVE that song, I found the album for sale on Amazon.com if you are interested (you can also download the song from there for .99 cents)

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

This has not been a good day. Of course it really started late last night when Ella spiked a fever. Well at 5am I heard her coughing and being restless so I went in and got her up. She had a fever and cough so I called the oh so lovely nurses line (for the base after hours,) of course the base was not open today so I had to take her to a walk in clinic. The doctor asked if anyone at home was sick so I told him that Hunter has bronchitis and he looked at her said she has bronchitis and an ear infection (which thrilled me cause she just had tubes put in 2 weeks ago) gave me a prescription for antibiotics and sent me on my way. So, around 5ish this afternoon my grandad was holding Ella and told me to come and take her temp cause she was getting hot. So, I went over and took her temp and noticed that she was kind of gasping for air, I lifted her shirt and saw that she was struggling a bit. So, I called the clinic and of course the Dr she saw was already gone, so I had to call the nurses line. I told the nurse what was going on and she said to call 911. I didn't really think that was necessary, I told her that she was sitting up fine, I just needed authorization to take her to the ER. She said "I'm an RN and have seen children up and playing one minute and down the next." I said, can't I just take her right now. She said "No, something could happen in the car." Okay. I'll call 911. As soon as I called Ella started going down hill quick. She started really struggling, and then started panicking which made her breathing even worse. She was gasping so loud, it was SO scary, I was just sitting on the floor holding her crying my eyes out and singing to her trying to calm her down. She turned purple when she would cough, it was bad. Luckily the fireman got her very quick and put some oxygen on her, her O2 stat was 80% which is not so good. The ambulance showed up a couple minutes later and off to the ER we went. She got a breathing treatment in the ambulance, then another one with a different drug in the ER. She was still breathing hard but her stats were up. Finally they gave her a liquid steroid and her breathing calmed way down!! So, the final diagnosis is Croup. Really? Is it supposed to be that traumatic and come on that fast??? Anyhow, she still struggles a little bit here and there, NOTHING like earlier. Oh and the ER doc looked in her ears and said that they are NOT infected. Hmmm.... can I ever trust a doctor??? Anyhow, my grandparents are going to stay an extra day, which is great. I am not going to get any sleep tonight, I'm going to sit up with Ella so they can watch the kiddos tomorrow while I take a nap : ) It's strange to say this but, I was definetly more scared today than I was when she choked on her vomit when she was 3 weeks old and stopped breathing. Of course I was scared then but, I don't know, maybe I am just SO much more attached and in love with her, I know thats weird. When she was 3 weeks old I was still in such a fog, and really all I could think was "wow is this how it's going to be?" Obviously I've come a long way since then and just cannot fathom my life without her in it.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas to all!!! Hope everyone had a great day! We sure did! Our living room looks like Toys-R-Us! The kids had fun, though Hunter has been sick (we spent 4 hours at the clinic on Sunday, he has bronchitis) and as we speak Ella has a 102+ fever. Fun fun fun. How many times in one day can you say "get a tissue" and "cover your mouth"?? Poor babies. They had fun though. Here are some pics of the day. I know there isn't much of Hunter but it was hard to find many pictures where he didn't have snot running out of his nose : )

Ella's new doll buggy. She does not like her babies to ride in it! She threw them both out!!

Sit to Stand V-tech

Head lamp and walkie talkie!!

Pretty picture of an Alaskan native girl (which is what Ella's room is decorated with)

Hunter's new scooby-doo underwear on his head. A sad tradition for our family, my sister and I had to pose every year with our new underwear on our head, so of course I decided to torture him : )

Ella's new rocking catepillar

New Sally car.

And here is my big girl walking across the living room pushing her doll buggy. She is simply amazing to me!!!

Saturday, December 22, 2007

I may be a little biased, but really she is just so cute!!!! Today is the first time I ever tried the two big pigtails, loved them but of course with hair that fine they stayed in for about 5 minutes. Then the overalls, I LOVE overalls but haven't been able to put her in them because every time she would sit the bib of them would come up over her mouth, which is not so cute and rather annoying!! So now that she has grown some (though you will notice how long they are on her!) I thought I would give it a try. Anyhow, I love how her eyes match the denim. That's it for today, just had to share these pics!!

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Funny story. Last night I was trying to print something off of the computer and the printer was not cooperating, so I yelled for Chris to come and help me. He was in here (the bedroom) for a whole 2 minutes then returned to the living room where our sweet innocent daughter was playing. Chris yelled for me, in that tone reserved for when one of our children are doing something they are not supposed to be. So, rolling my eyes I walk into the living room. Ella immediately grunts/yells at me and turns her back to me. When I finally get a good look at her this is what I see.

Ella pulled herself up on Hunter's desk and found the other half of his candy cane (which may I add that Santa gave him when he visited his class at school, which I had to hear about all day.) somehow unwrapped it and began sucking on it. Now, I must admit that I was quite amazed and my first thought was, wow she is SO smart, she actually got that unwrapped and did not shove the whole thing in her mouth, I have to get the camera!!! Of course then I realized what a mess she had made and worse yet that I had better get her cleaned up fast as to dispose of the evidence before Hunter found out!! What a sticky mess she was, and let me tell you she was VERY angry to have that candy cane taken away after she had worked so hard!!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

I was trying to take this picture at our church on Sunday morning. Hunter would not stop kissing Ella. Normally sweet, right then all I wanted him to do was smile at the camera!

Love Ella's face!

My husband's pick for our Christmas cards.

Lovely.

And finally our winner. Never mind that neither kid is looking at the camera. But this was the only one with 2 smiles and 4 eyes open. So, there you have it!!!

Okay, so let me start by saying that I am incredibly stressed!!! We have a very good chance of moving to Spokane, WA in about 25 days. Of course this is all depending on the Air Force (surely they will finally take pity on us and actually do what we are requesting) Chris has asked for an early out (9 weeks) at the request of the Spokane Police Dept so he can get into the Feb academy. I am excited about moving but 1. I am not emotionally prepared to leave all of the wonderful people that I know here and 2. I hate packing 3. I don't want to drive with our 2 kids 1700 miles 4. We don't know where we are going to live 5. I don't want to unpack and OH YEAH we don't even know for sure that Chris has the job so I'm a little freaked out about it all.

I am trying to start packing the house and get rid of a bunch of stuff. But little Miss Thing has decided that she no longer wants to take naps. That's right my 15 month old has not napped for 4 days straight. Normally not a horrible thing, given that she is incredibly happy these days, but when you are trying to get things done and she is getting into EVERYTHING it kind of makes things hard.

Ella has been SO happy lately. I don't know if it a coincidence or it is because of the ear tubes but she has been extremely vocal, very loud, and has been laughing a lot. I dare to say that her breathing is a lot quieter too, could it be from her tubes????

My grandparents are coming on Friday so we are excited about that! They will be a huge help because they can occupy the kiddos while I get some stuff done!! YAY!!!

I think my mom has watched my video montage 50 times, every time I talk to her she says she has watched it again, which makes me laugh. My mom was talking to my new sister-in-law the other day and asked her if she had watched the video, which she had. She told my mom that she had been thinking a lot lately about her and Dustin (my little brother) having a baby and the possibility that they could have a baby with Down syndrome or some other disability and how that now because of Ella she knows they could handle it. That makes me feel so good. I mean really isn't that what we all want. One of my goals in life is to tell as many people as possible about Ella and that because of her they see that a child with special needs is just as wonderful as a typical child. Not to say that it's all a walk in the park, but it's wonderful. I know that I have said this before but I wish that when Ella was born I had known all that I know now. That is my only regret. I feel like I missed bonding moments with Ella in those first few weeks to months. So, I just want people to know that things will be okay and your life can change in the blink of an eye but it is all for the better. I don't know if any of that makes any sense at all, it's almost 1am and I can barely keep my eyes open but I felt a need to post.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Ella had her tubes put in this morning. We were on the road at 5:30 AM to head up to Lawton, OK for her surgery and lucky me it was raining ice. Now for those of you that know me, I am a VERY nervous driver oh yeah and NOT a morning person. So after 3 hours of sleep, the weather and it being pitch black out, by the time I arrived at the surgery center my nerves were already shot.

Ella did wonderful!! They gave her a sedative when we first got there, I changed her into her little hospital gown and they gave her a Dr. Bear. She was hilarious once the medication kicked in. She just kept laughing and rocking back and forth to get me to rock in the rocking chair. The procedure took a whole 15 minutes, the doctor said he cleaned out more fluid than he thought would be in there, so hopefully that is the answer to our hearing test problems!! She woke up nicely from her anesthesia and we were on the road back home by 8:15. She was a little whiny all day and kept laying down on the floor (which NEVER happens!) But otherwise she was great, she loves her Dr. Bear so I thought I would take some pics of her with it. Don't pay any attention to her crazy hat hair : )

Sunday, December 9, 2007

We are back home. Whew, 25 days gone it feels like an eternity but it also went by all to fast. Let me tell you though, we got an incredible amount of stuff done! I will write more about our adventures later (it's after 1AM and I'm tired!)

I just wanted to do a quick brag post about Ella. In the 25 days that we were gone she learned quite a bit!! She now.......

- can cruise (walk holding on the the couch etc)

- throw a ball

- blow kisses

- pretends to talk on the toy phone

- crawls up on all fours instead of belly crawling

- dances ( the cutest thing I have ever seen, she kind of does the twist)

- claps with her feet ( every time she would throw the ball we would say "yay" and she would clap her feet together, it even makes the clapping sound!!)

- yesterday on the airplane she finally decided to start clapping her hands, we have been working on that one for months!!!

- and finally she is walking pretty good when you hold on to her hands!!

I am so proud of her!!! It's funny how much more you appreciate every little thing with her!

Tomorrow we are heading up to Lawton, Oklahoma for her pre-op appointments and then Wednesday she is getting tubes in her ears. I am not the least bit worried about the actual tubes part, it's the anesthesia that kind of freaks me out. Anyhow, I probably will not be on for a couple of days, we are going to be super busy!!!

My Montage

About Me

I am a mother to two incredible children. Hunter is 8 years old and Ella Grace is 6 years old. My children are my life, my true joy. My life was turned upside down when my daughter was born and surprised us all by having Down syndrome. Since her birth I have come from sorrow and a sense of loss to greater happiness than I ever imagined and I owe it all to The Amazing Ella Grace! Contact me anytime by email fbkspeach@yahoo.com

Down Syndrome Creed

My face may be different,but my feelings the same.I laugh and I cryand take pride in my gains.I was sent here among you to teach and to loveas God in the heavenslooks down from above.To Him I'm no different,His love knows no bounds;It's those here among you, in cities and townsthat judge me by standardsthat man has imparted,but this family I've choosenwill help me get started.For I'm one of the children,so special so few,that came here to learnthe same lessons as you.That love is acceptance, it must come from the heart;we all have the same purpose,though not the same start.The Lord gave me lifeto live and embrace,and I'll do it as you do,but at my own pace.-Unknown